Neoconservatism and “Helping” – Freedom Philosophy

By
Brandon Kirby
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2
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Ralph Wiggum - Neoconservatism -

There’s something attractive about neoconservatism.

When we look around we don’t see war. We don’t see death or horror. We don’t even see our governments murdering people – though they most certainly do.

When we turn on the news, we see ISIS torturing people. We see the Taliban oppressing women. We see Hamas preaching the virtue of suicide bombers. We see speculation that Iran is working toward a nuclear weapon. Only a heartless individual could ignore these things.

Who turns their back on the horrors in Syria? Sixty-eight percent of Afghans suffer from PTSD – who could look the other way?

There is another more self-serving argument for neoconservatism.

Aren’t national security issues at stake? Iran’s government’s motto is “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” ISIS has delusions of grandeur with plans for global domination. The Taliban supports terrorism.

Humanitarian and national-security issues drive people to neoconservatism. But libertarian philosophers have seldom countenanced neoconservatism for much the same reason we dismiss left-wing economics.

 

I call the Fight for $15, and all drives toward increasing minimum wage, the Ralph Wiggum approach (the fictitious character from The Simpsons for whom intellection and understanding are elusive):

Most of us have at some point worked at minimum wage or most of us at the very least know people that do. No one likes to see loved ones struggle financially. The problem with minimum wage is that it causes unemployment for businesses that can’t afford the increase.

What’s worse, it causes increased labor costs, which translates into higher prices, which translates into an increased cost of living. Thus, people wind up in a nightmare situation where they’re unemployed in a jurisdiction with an increased cost of living.

What is even more mind-boggling is that these people think they’re helping. Not only are they not helping they’re obviously making things much worse. My criticism of the neoconservative movement is that it’s the Ralph Wiggum approach:

 

Obama helped in Libya, by removing Gaddafi from power and turning it over to warring misogynistic terrorist gangs.

He helped Yemen, by actively participating in the genocide against the Zaydi Muslims.

He helped in Syria, by fueling a civil war that resulted in the death of 500,000 Syrians.

Very little needs to be said on the help Bush gave to the Iraqis.

Before him, Clinton’s assistance was even more deadly – killing hundreds of thousands of children through his sanctions preventing food and medicine to those who needed it most.

In terms of national security, I refer the neocon to Mr. Wiggum.

 

Before the drone strike initiative, Al Qaeda was reduced to 700 members. Now ISIS alone commands 30,000 members. As it turns out, the more we kill their children the more they hate us and want to kill us. Neocon’s don’t understand that or willfully ignore it.

If you walked up to one of their houses and killed their children, they would probably try to kill you, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, they forget that other people feel the exact same way.

There is a problem. There is a problem with poverty. It’s not solved by more of the policies that create the very trouble we’re looking to avoid. Libertarians believe that peace can be acquired through trade. We believe the cost of living can be assuaged through free market monetary policy to oppose inflationary pressures. We believe that peace can be obtained through free trade.

What we don’t support are policies that are obvious failures. Liberty is the rejection of that which we know doesn’t work.

We know violations of the non-aggression policy are failures. They’re failures economically and they’re failures in foreign policy. Liberty is the way out of poverty and the way out of war.

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Brandon Kirby

Brandon Kirby has a philosophy degree from the University of New Brunswick and is a current MBA candidate finishing his thesis. He is an AML officer specializing in hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, owns a real estate company in Canada, and has been in the financial industry since 2004. He is the director of Being Libertarian - Canada and the president of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

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